Younger readers (if there are any at a blog that specializes in the music of 60 years ago) may not know who Eddie Cantor was. Well, son/daughter, he was a very famous entertainer in his day, was on Broadway, on the radio and later television, and made movies. This is his life story as told by the Warner Bros. in 1953.
That's Eddie on the cover, although he wasn't the star of the movie (the dreaded Keefe Brasselle was), but it's his voice on the soundtrack and on this record, doing his most famous numbers.
Forgotten today, Cantor was famous enough to have made records even into the stereo era. His contemporaries included George Jessel, Al Jolson, and Jimmy Durante, and who remembers them today?
It certainly has a colorful cover, done by Karlis or Karlin, who I believe did other covers from that era.
15 comments:
While discussing the dubbing for Roz Russell’s singing in the movie Gypsy (1962) over at Golden Age Of Hollywood at Franklynot some time ago, I said
“Except for The Student Prince, The Jolson Story and Jolson Sings Again, the Hollywood studios tried to hide the practice of dubbing from the public.”
Of course, I had totally forgotten about The Eddie Cantor Story. It would have been a great movie were it not for the fact that Cantor’s impersonator Brasselle was so obsequious in the role. Thank heaven Warner Brothers allowed Eddie Cantor to sing for himself - and they didn’t hide the fact that he did either.
Many thanks for posting this great record, which includes all Cantor’s top hit songs - and I don’t think it ever made it to CD.
Thank You very musch.
I remember them :-)
Henning Jensen
Is it possible to repost this?
The link in the post above still seems to be active. You might want to try it again.
Hi Buster, I've been reading some George Burns books where he talks a lot about Cantor and his friends. I've been wanting to hear some Cantor and Durante, and most of the links I've seen are dead, including the one here. Got my begging cup out!
@ vilstef - I should be able to reup, assuming I can find the files, but it might take a bit of time.
Take the time you need. I'm well acquainted with 'where did that go?'
Although Eddie Cantor is too often relegated to 'blackface' performances, tinged with Borscht Belt mishegass--a pre-Danny Kaye toomler, what is forgotten is his courage in facing down red-baiters, and his generosity in 'discovering' and encouraging many young talented performers...thanks for restoring his contributions.
Buster,
Please re-activate this link. Thank you.
I once read that when touring with the Ziegfeld Follies with African-American star Bert Williams, Cantor refused to stay in a Southern hotel that would not accept Williams as a guest despite his worldwide fame. Cantor moved to the hotel where Williams stayed.
Thanks very much!
You first look at Cantor and you think he will be miserable, then he goes into his act - singing - dancing - mugging - joking - and he is a sensation!
Got this quite a while back from you, and should have said thanks long ago too!
please, the Mega link is gone, please reupload this gem...
Denys P.R.
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New link:
https://mega.nz/#!uUFlDAQR!nHb-eLPH3vPRUk1nI1UH5kbvvhG8UI1nb6JsbvZp7R0
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